Child and Youth Consultations

An increasing body of research and reports at the international level has helped to cast light on the intimate relationship between children's rights and the environment. However, a lack of normative and practical guidance on applying child rights in the environmental context persists. It is clear that all relevant stakeholders - at local, national, regional and global levels - would benefit enormously from more systematic efforts to facilitate knowledge sharing and mutual learning on the action required to promote children’s rights in relation to the environment.

In this context, the Children’s Environmental Rights Initiative (CERI) is bringing together a diverse range of key stakeholders through a series of unique intergenerational consultations in each of the world regions. Each consultation is tailored to region-specific issues and priorities, and provides a critical platform for exchange among child and youth activists, national and regional actors from Government, regional institutions, civil society, research institutions and academia, international organisations, regional and national human rights institutions and courts, as well as private sector actors.

CERI consultations support:

  • Empowerment of children and youth: Children receive specialized capacity-building in advance of consultations. Intergenerational dialogue forms the basis for solidarity at national, regional and global levels, and demonstrates a model for child-friendly consultation mechanisms more broadly. CERI works with local partners to identify and engage children from marginalized communities in particular.
  • Actions/commitments: Consultations provide a basis for facilitating future collaboration and follow-up activities. Findings and recommendations identified by participants are captured in regional reports.
  • A powerful and consolidated network of experts and organisations across regions advocating on issues related to children’s rights and the environment.
  • Identification of good practice laws, policies and action, to be collated in a compendium.
  • Development of a Global Charter on Child Rights & the Environment: A consolidated set of key principles that will provide a blueprint for universal standard-setting in relation to the right of the child to grow up in a safe and healthy environment, based on inputs from children and experts in all world regions.

Consultations and Timelines

[Regional groupings may change and additional consultations may be incorporated, contingent on funding]

2018

  • November: Preparatory workshop of group of core partners

2019

2020

  • July: Mini regional consultation for the Caribbean

2021

  • Q1/Q2: Regional consultation for North America
  • Q3/Q4: Regional consultation for Africa

2022

  • Q1/Q2: Regional consultation for Europe and West/Central Asia (tbc)
  • Q3/Q2: Regional consultation for Middle East and North Africa (tbc)
  • TBC: Global expert consultation

Where possible, efforts are made to align with regional child rights and/or other relevant ongoing national and international events, in order to amplify awareness, facilitate participation, capitalize on potential synergies, and minimize carbon footprint.